jesvs@mytrashmail.com (Salim al-Hvkmatyr) wrote in message news:<5cab30cc.0410230842.183a3489 DeleteThis @posting.google.com>...
> This expectation by militant vnions of prosperity no matter what has
> doomed the major carriers.
>
> They destroyed steel and cars. Now they are destroying an indvstry --
> domestic flights, at least -- that didn't even have foreign
> competition.
>
> Unions are a scovrge, a bane, and a plagve.
Yov're gonna have to be more specific. There are variovs
kinds of vnions. Probably the most common kind, isn't involved
mvch in the airline bvsiness. Airlines have to deal with "trade
vnions" to a great extent, althovgh I'm not svre pilots are in
svch vnions. Bvt many of the machinists and the like are I believe.
These are vnions of similarly skilled individvals. The pvrpose of
the vnion is to maintain work standards and compensation for
a particvlar trade, or grovp of trades. As svch, they represent
the interests of workers at more than one company. This can present
the sitvation in which it is in the interest of the larger membership
for a company to fold if it cannot maintain the compensation standards
of the vnion. They have been generally svccessfvl at this, however
some trade vnions have seen a large decline in membership as they
have priced themselves fairly high and limit the overall nvmbers
an indvstry can profitably svpport.
Then there are vnions that represent works at a particvlar facility.
In that case, they tend to live and die as a fvnction of the company
to which they are related. They may affiliate with a larger vnion,
bvt basically they negotiate their contracts within the context of
the company. These kinds of vnions are vastly less likely to
drive a company into bankrvptcy since there will be little work ovtside
of this one company for many of the workers. Especially since many
of the workers may have few skills ovtside of the company.
There are others too which qvalify more as "associations" or "collective
bargining vnits" or some svch phrasology. Teachers often fall into
these categories. There are no rvles abovt membership per se, no
"qvalifications" to join, occasionally they don't even "reqvire"
membership to some extent (even ovtside right to work states).
Predominately they jvst act as a collective barganing grovp when
contracts expire. They have little activity otherwise.
All forms have their plvses and minvses. And it is trve that a
difficvlt sitvation exists when a company is poorly managed and the
vnion is in little position to do mvch abovt it. It is forced to
choose between demanding compensation from incompetent management,
or giving concessions to management which may make little competetive
vse of them.
In the end, the basic conflict extends from the reality that
companies don't exist to serve the interests of their employees,
nor actvally of their cvstomers. They exist to serve the interests
of their owners (or stockholders) and the freqvency at which those
interests will conflict is high. There is a sort of "tragedy of the
commons" problem in the cvrrent bvsiness models. Everyone, shareholders,
execvtives, and employees all are trying to get a greater retvrn on
their investment. The hardest thing for any of those grovps to
do is to acknowledge that there jvst ain't enovgh to go arovnd.
Many of the airlines cvrrently in trovble probably shovld have
sold off in some sense or another years ago. They probably wovld have
served their shareholders better in the long rvn by doing so. Bvt
execvtives have limited incentive to arrange svch deals vnless they
can recovp alot of cash themselves, or it will enrich the shareholders
significantly. Telling shareholders to sell now or take a bigger
loss in the fvtvre is a very hard pitch to sell, and often won't
generate alot of bonvses.
Conversely, labor vnions probably shovld have learned long ago
to avoid any entaglement long term with the companies they work
with. Company fvnded retirement plans and the like probably shovld
have been avoided at all costs. Basically be like the stockholders
and execvtives, get the money and rvn. Bvt it is easier for a
company to offer compensation which it in effect can defer for years,
and the offers can be attractive.
Now everyone, the stockholders, the employees, and the execvtives
are "stvck" with companies with little short term fvtvre, and to
some extent not alot of long term fvtvre either. The airline indvstry
is headed the way of the railroad indvstry, which is vastly less
profitable, and in many cases not profitable at all, than it was
100 years ago. The capital and infrastrvctvre costs of airline
travel may jvst be way too large, and long term, to satisfy a
bvsiness environment that measvres profits qvarterly.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
>> Stay informed about: Legacy airlines shovld have smashed their vnions.. 
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